Competing in an increasingly complex market has its challenges. As your competitors up their game and take advantage of new technologies, you need to be ready to adapt. If you know that you have room for improvement in your Supply Chain Management processes, you might be deciding whether to opt for a stand-alone SCM system or a more holistic ERP. Here are three top reasons for choosing an ERP fit for manufacturing.

If there are inefficiencies in your chain, you'll spot them much faster when you have all the data at your fingertips. With the right manufacturing ERP features, you can optimize inventory levels to avoid material shortages and make sure your purchasing cycles align with production and demand. This gives you two huge benefits. Firstly, you’ll be much better positioned to ensure your customers receive what they want, when they want it. Secondly, your ERP system will be helping you directly impact the bottom line but cutting down wasted storage space and manpower because of flaws in materials management.

2. Streamline Vendor Management

Stand alone processes and systems make it very difficult for each department to operate as a whole. Choosing a system that compares your activity with your business goals, manufacturing schedule and inventory opens the door to automation. Freeing your workforce to focus on other critical business functions where the human touch is needed most. The right ERP system can enable that. You can even have your ERP automatically place orders when inventory drops below a certain level.

Imagine if your vendor management people could spend more time on building relationships, improving standards, tying in better SLAs and finding new suppliers? In fact, having better data on what you need and when can even help you take advantage of economies of scale. By taking away some of the needless legwork and knowing exactly what you need and when means that your people have more time to negotiate better deals. This is just one of the many ways you’ll see an ROI from your ERP investment.

Aside from the opportunity to have your people focus on more strategic priorities, you also reduce the problem of human error. No more nasty surprises because someone didn’t place an order at the right time! You can even track vendor performance against KPIs such as cycle time, errors and quality.

3. Fraud Detection & Prevention

Because of the enhanced visibility an ERP system enables, any discrepancies that might indicate corruption, fraud or malfeasance in your organization will be easily detected. Nobody likes to have these suspicions but having the tools to identify abnormalities in your supply chain can put your mind at ease. Not only that, but because you will have data to back up any incidents, it will be much easier to pursue prosecution if it comes to it.

Having the ERP in itself is a huge deterrent to anyone considering taking advantage of your business. Just as your security cameras watch over your warehouse gates, your ERP watches over your finances and inventory. Once people know there’s a chance of detection, they are far less likely to put themselves at risk.

If you’re deciding on which ERP is right for your manufacturing business, consider these factors and list down all other manufacturing pain-points that you want it to address. To ensure you find the best fit for your business, take a look at the complete ERP RFP guide and template. To make sure you have a successful rollout, download the ERP implementation guide.

About Author

Helen Peatfield

Helen Peatfield is a writer at ERP Focus, editor and marketing consultant with a wealth of experience in ad tech, supply chain management and SaaS. When she is not typing away at her desk, she can be found scuba diving or wakeboarding in the sunny Gulf of Thailand.